Add, rearrange, and delete slides

The single slide that appears automatically when you open PowerPoint has two placeholders, one formatted for a title and the other formatted for a subtitle. The arrangement of placeholders on a slide is called a layout. Microsoft PowerPoint 2010 also provides other kinds of placeholders, such as those for pictures and SmartArt graphics.

When you add a slide to your presentation, do the following to choose a layout for the new slide at the same time:

In Normal view, on the pane that contains the Outline and Slides tab, click the Slides tab, and then click under the single slide that automatically appears there when you open PowerPoint.

On the Home tab, in the Slides group, click the arrow next to New Slide. Or, if you want your new slide to have the same layout that the slide before it has, you can just click New Slide instead of clicking the arrow next to it.

A gallery appears that displays thumbnails of the various slide layouts that are available.

1. The name identifies the content that each layout is designed for.

2. Placeholders that display colored icons can contain text, but you can also click the icons to automatically insert objects, including SmartArt graphics and clip art.

Click the layout that you want for your new slide.

The new slide now appears both on the left on the Slides tab, where it is highlighted as the current slide, and as the large slide on the right in the Slide pane. Repeat this procedure for each new slide that you want to add.

Determine how many slides you need

To calculate the number of slides that you need, make an outline of the material that you plan to cover, and then divide the material into individual slides. You probably want at least:

A main title slide

An introductory slide that lists the major points or areas in your presentation

One slide for each point or area that is listed on the introductory slide

A summary slide that repeats the list of major points or areas in your presentation

By using this basic structure, if you have three major points or areas to present, you can plan to have a minimum of six slides: a title slide, an introductory slide, one slide for each of the three major points or areas, and a summary slide.

If there is a large amount of material to present in any of your main points or areas, you may want to create a subgrouping of slides for that material by using the same basic outline structure.

Tip Consider how much time each slide should be visible on the screen during your presentation. A good standard estimate is from two to five minutes per slide.

Apply a new layout to a slide

To change the layout of an existing slide, do the following:

In Normal view, on the pane that contains the Outline and Slides tab, click the Slides tab, and then click the slide that you want to apply a new layout to.

On the Home tab, in the Slides group, click Layout, and then click the new layout that you want.

Note If you apply a layout that doesn't have enough of the right kind of placeholders for the content that already exists on the slide, additional placeholders are automatically created to contain that content.

Copy a slide

If you want to create two or more slides that are similar in content and layout, you can save work by creating one slide that has all the formatting and content that both slides will share, and then making a copy of that slide before you add the final, individual touches to each.

In Normal view, on the pane that contains the Outline and Slides tab, click the Slides tab, right-click the slide that you want to copy, and then click Copy.

On the Slides tab, right-click where you want to add the new copy of the slide, and then click Paste.

You can also use this procedure to insert a copy of a slide from one presentation into another presentation.

Rearrange the order of slides

In Normal view, on the pane that contains the Outline and Slides tab, click the Slides tab, click the slide that you want to move, and then drag it to the location that you want.

To select multiple slides, click a slide that you want to move, and then press and hold CTRL while you click each of the other slides that you want to move.

Delete a slide

In Normal view, on the pane that contains the Outline and Slides tab, click the Slides tab, right-click the slide that you want to delete, and then click Delete Slide.